A sample of some of the plastic in the water in the South Pacific Ocean.Algalita Marine Research and Education

“My initial impression is that our samples compared to what we were seeing in the North Pacific in 2007, so it’s about ten years behind,” said Moore.

Moore, who has spent years raising awareness of plastic pollution since he saw the North Pacific patch while captaining a racing yacht in the 1990s, believes the patch could be over 380,000 square miles.

Patches like this form around rotating ocean currents which are called gyres.

Five gyres are known to exist in our oceans, of which the North Pacific Gyre – where a garbage patch was first spotted – is the largest.

Moore’s expedition is the second team to collect samples of plastic pollution in the South Pacific Gyre.

The ORV Alguita criss-crossed between Chile and Easter Island to collect samples of the new garbage patch.

Algalita Marine Research and Education

The first team to notice the “patch” was led by Dr. Markus Eriksen in 2011, who said he saw “very little debris” at that time.

Moore said it is likely that huge amounts of rubbish have entered the sea since and that this particular patch is distributed unevenly – so boats may sail through empty spots.

“We found a few larger items, occasionally a buoy and some fishing gear, but most of it was broken into bits,” Moore added.

Moore and his team are currently cleaning the samples they’ve collected and will analyze them before publishing the results.